Tablets are different today

Most students today think of tablets as electronic devices that can be used to search the internet, to many older adults we think of tablets in a completely different way. Tablets of still another type are mentioned in the Bible, but the tablet I'm referring to is the tablet that was invented by William Albrecht whose family had a stationery business in Quincy, Illinois in the early part of the twentieth century. In 1906 William opened the Western Tablet Company in St. Joseph, Missouri, it became the world's largest paper tablet producer.

The tablet is a popular writing notebook, most are made with newsprint paper. The most famous tablet is the "Big Chief" tablet which Western Tablet trademarked in 1947, in the mid twentieth century many children entering first grade learned to print and write using a "Big Chief" tablet with its widely spaced lines. Those tablets have a prominent representation of a Native American in full headdress on the cover, this gives the tablet its easy to remember name.

Many adults also like to use tablets for their writings, it's been said that the texture of the newsprint against the pencils and pens allow for a smoother and softer transfer of whatever they are writing. That may be one reason that a "Big Chief" tablet is used by many pre-digital age authors, I imagine that nostalgia factor helps also.

After a few other changes in 1964 the Western Tablet Company was renamed "Westab." In the 1960s the spiral notebook, another Westab invention, began to outsell the "Big Chief'" so you might say the best days of the "Big Chief" tablets were between 1947 and the mid 1960s. In 1966 the Mead Corporation acquired Westab, Mead later sold the "Big Chief" tablet line to Springfield Tablet of Springfield, Missouri. In 2001 Springfield sold their inventory To Everett Pad and Paper of Everett, Washington, after eighty years of operation Everett Pad and Paper closed their plant and "Big Chief" tablet production was no more for a while at least. The plant in St. Joseph, Missouri, where the popular tablet was first produced was closed in 2004 when Mead left the city.

In the very popular 1994 film Forrest Gump, Forrest can be seen getting on the bus holding a "Big Chief" tablet. The tablet can also be seen in the popular "Run Forrest, Run" scene. "Big Chief" has also been a part of scenes in several other movies and television shows through the years.

In 2012 American Trademark Publishing of Brookshire, Texas resumed production of the Big Chief writing tablet. The "Big Chief" tablets are available once again, for more information go to http://www.originalbigchief.com.

If you have any comments or questions my e-mail address is deh63shs@yahoo.com.